The Problem with your Arts Career

This is going to be a bit of a different blog post than I usually write as often I focus my attention on leadership skills and their connection to the arts. Today I want to write directly to those of you who are professional artists struggling to make yourself known and develop a career that is fulfilling AND financially viable at the same time.

I’ve had the unique experience in my career to work directly in the arts AND in marketing/business and what I’ve noticed is a big disconnect between the desire for artists to become successful and earn a living with their art form and how they think about their craft as a business.

A few years ago I used to run a workshop called Overcoming The Starving Artist Syndrome, which was a 3-hour workshop targeted at artists who were looking to learn marketing skills. Many of the artists I worked with didn’t understand that they were an entrepreneur just as much as a dancer, actor, musician or artist. They were very “schooled” in their craft whether it be performing or visual arts, but they had very little reality that it was actually their responsibility to market themselves, book jobs, handle their finances, ensure they were financially viable, create PR, correct issues in their business and find new opportunities to demonstrate their talents. Much of the “business” side of their career was almost entirely missed.

I understand that some post-secondary institutions do offer courses on the business side of the arts, but the reality is that one or two courses is not going to provide the foundation professional artists need to truly find success. One of my business mentors, Meir Ezra, says that you are only as successful as your weakest area. So inevitably, by not learning and applying all there is to know about the business side of the arts you are limiting your success to what you DON’T know.

When you combine the lack of business training with negative self-talk like “earning a living in the arts is hard” you are going down a dangerous path – especially when you listen to family and friends around you who say “why don’t you get a real job”. What you are left with are very opposing ideas that push against each other (I want to succeed in the arts BUT I can’t succeed in the arts).

Unfortunately, when you have two thoughts that oppose one another it creates such a force that it can stop progress dead in its tracks. It almost becomes impossible to push through. So you sit and wonder why your career isn’t moving in the direction that you would like…well these opposing thoughts are one aspect to the problem.

My next few blog posts are going to give you some insights into the business of the arts and give you some actual tangible tools that you can start to implement so you can tip the scale more towards a successful career.

If anything rang true for you in this post I’d love to hear about it. Please comment on the blog post and share your thoughts!

4 Comments

This is an excellent insight into what I am experiencing right now. I would like to see what you have to say about artists who want to spend their time creating instead of social media and marketing. I’m also struggling as an amateur doing all of the technical digital work with limited digital knowledge, skills and software.

Thank you Jason! The reality is that whether you actually want to do the marketing/social media work or not it MUST be done if you are going to have any chance of succeeding. I totally understand the desire to just CREATE:) However, you will succeed in direct ratio to your weakest areas. So either you have to learn how to do it yourself OR you need to hire others to do the work for you, but you are responsible for ensuring that it happens. The trick is to make sure you are not spending a ton of money hiring outsourcers. If you aren’t careful you can spend a lot of money for other people to do marketing work for you that doesn’t actually bring you any results. Check out this page on our website for artists: http://theartisticedge.ca/for-artists/

This is a good topic for me and I will be paying attention to your advice. I’ve been spending quite a bit of time creating and getting my work out there has been a concern for me. I have thought of selling on Facebook, and also I have a blog but I’ve never posted my work for sale on it. I could use some tips.

I’m happy to help Vicky. You have to know that there is a direct correlation between how much communication you send out about your work and what comes back in to you in the form of sales. So starting to build an email list and send communication to it, is a vital component to your financial success. There is definitely low cost ways to do this…send me an email and I’ll see how else I can help.

The Artistic Edge is dedicated to providing parents and educators with the resources they need to help 21st century children reach their full potential. It also provides marketing and promotional resources for artists and arts organization, so they can focus on their creativity while still developing a thriving business.